Method of and means for preparing fuels



Patented Aug. 31, 19 26.

UNITED STATES PATE e aosnrn MOSES wnnnmrcnnn,

1,598,086 NT- OFFICE.

or EAST omnen, NEW. JERSEY.

METHOD or AND MEANS non rnnremne runes.

No Drawing. 'Applicatlon filed November ling, heating, and other purposes. lln carrying out the general purpose, I utilize with good advantage, crude fuels and-low cost carbonaceous matters that are not used at all, or not used with advantage in their physical condition. The basic idea of the invention is to carbonize fuels rich in volatile solvents, and thus more or less harden those fuels thru their coking, by application of heatof various temperatures; and utilizing as burnable gas the volatile driven off in the coking. After securing the coke as a basis for fuel, I reconstitute in the coke, either in its fuel particles or in the fuelmass. varying amounts of volatile, to give the fuel a greater intensity of heating power than what would be possessed by the hardened fuel if used alone. An essential part of the invention is to secure a sufici'ently permanent porosity of the fuel-mass so that when the fuel-mass is being burned or heated, the crumbling and compaction of the fuel will be preventedwhich occurs in crude soft fuels under the solvent action of the volatile content in those soft crude fuels when subjected to heat in the fuelmass, or in atmospheric exposure.

In my copending applications, Ser. Nos. 295,513; 353,106; 522,920; and 625,025, Idescribe and claim various methods of preparing such fuels and burning or gasifying them. The present application relates in part and .in articular to a meth 0d of impregnating co e with low cost petroleum fractionates, the penetrative impregnating character of which is increased, .or produced, by subjectingsuch hydrocarbon impregnants to heat of various degrees of intensity before-their use as 'im regnants.

The invention relates to meth s for controlling the amount of heat applied in increasing the liquidity of such impregnants,

which is an important matter, on account of the relatively quick volatilizing character of such impregnants; and hence, the danger of their ignition during the preparation of the fuel The invention comprises a selection of the character of the coked materials used for the various applied p'ur ses; and includes the temperatures applie in the carboniz'ation of the selected materials. Coke proe, 1923. SerialNo. erases.

duced by high temperature carboni zation,

is very hard and vitreous in character, and

has slight inflammability; but that character renders such high temperature cokes resistant to the gasifying heat of gas making processes, sufficient in degree to volatilize and gasify hydrocarbon impregnants absorbed into the porosities of coke of that resistant character. Coke of that kind if lmpregnated by the method of the present invention, has a useful application in the generation of fixed gases of high thermic values. Cokeproduced under low'temperature carbonization, impregnated with low cost fuel oils, has a special'value in generating producer gas of low thermic values, in which the impregnant and the absorbing coke are entirely consumed. Charcoal made by carbonizing'wood', has a special 'value in this invention for kindlin purposes when impregnated with inflamma le oils, because the charcoal itself is more inflammable than the mineral cokes of harder texture.

In the present invention, in preparing hydrocarbon impregnants -l may adopt the method of carrying the distillation of oils to a degree in which the residual fractionate will be of the right impregnating liquidity, and hardness after the impregnation of the coke and the cooling of the impregnant In this case, it is economy, to impregnate the coke with the impregnant while .it still retains the heat of the distillation process; for in that Way economy may be secured in one operation as well as selected characteristics of low, medium or high specific gravity and partial or complete solidity of the absorbed impregnant after its cooling.

The invention comprises the idea of relying upon the capillarity of coke to absorb the lighter solvent constituents in an impregnant thru an indrawing action of the lighter constituents to the center of the coked particles, leaving the heavier and more dense constituents on the exterior of the than atmospheric pressure.

fuel oilprior to its complete consumption, may be applied in various Ways.

It will be understood that my method of giving heavy carbons of difierent specific gravities, liquefying heatings, has a practical use not only in rendering them more.

pen'et'rative as impregnants, but also facilitates their atomization in blowing or mechanically spraying into zones of. combustion, Whether said zones are under atmospheric pressure, or whether they are in enclosures in, which the pneumatic pressure is higher increased heating in externally fired gas generating retorts.

I apply the principles of the invention in the preparation of a kindling fuel, in which I use charcoal as a basic matrix, the particles of which I impregnate with matters more inflammable than the charcoal, and which impre 'nants may be variedas to their liquidity of c aracter. Fuel oil to which an addition of pitchy matters in suflicient amounts to thicken the resultant fuel oil, I

may admix and liquefy with heat, and use as an impregnant for coke. The heating-of the impregnant increases its liquidity, and

dipped particles, --the adherent matter is.

enables the impregnant to be more quickly ave the impregnant after its cooling, to be of a partly fluid viscous character; because such non-solid impregnant inflames more quickly and transmits a quicker kindling heat to superimposed fuel .in its ignition.

In the preparatlon of such fuel, I merely liquefy a solid or nearlysolid itch, an di particles of coke in the liqueed pitch, wiiich mostly adheres to the external surfaces of the coked particles. After the dipping, to prevent adhesion of the uickly cooled after removal from the liqueed pitch. In burning such coated coke, the coating matter, if in nottoo thick a coat,

In case of the after it is melted under the heat of the burning, is drawn. into and retained in the porosities of the coke, and onlygradually volatilizes as the coke burns, and without dripping entirely thru the fuel-mass in the burning process.

By .using hardened coked particles as a frame or matrix to hold and retain impregnating hydrocarbon fractionates' of distillation, I produce a fuel that secures a better draft passing character in a fuel-mass, than is maintained in combinations of soft coal particles bound together in briquette form. In heating impregnants, to avoid the accident of ignitlon, care must be taken not to overheat them to'an inflammable degree. This can be conveniently effected by adding excess air for combustion in the burning of the heating materials. In the present invention, in heating impregnating oils, I may 'heat them with steam pipes located in'the containers in which theflimpregnants are held and whether the containers are stationary or ambulatory. This practice overcomes the difliculty of handling heavy, viscous oils during cold weather. In some cases I heat and dry the coke with hot air or with hot exhaust gases of combustion, and

to a degree-higher than would besafe to apply to the impregnatingmaterial without controlling the applied heating temperature.

This invention comprises the idea of feed: I

ing coked particles of suitable size impregnated with a liquid fuel, onto the upper fuel surface of an internally fired producer gas generator.

In the present application when I-use the word coke, it applies to both coked wood and to coked mineral coals, whether carbonized at high or low tem eratures. As recipient impregnating me iums,I prefer for fire kindling purposes, charcoal or coke pre-. pared by low temperature carbonization. Low temperature coke retains a certain amount of volatile, which conduces to its inflammability.

In preparing a kindling fuel of impregnated charcoal, the inflammability of the im-- pregnant nay be .too great, which defect may be overcome by a redipping of the impregnated particles with a'heated pitch that 1s not of highest inflammable characteryor, a selection can be made ofan impregnating matte'r having a higher flash point and a lesser degr e of inflammability. The flash. point of an impregnant may be so low or so high as to have too great an inflammability,

or not, enough; or it mayhave a suitable degree of inflammability. The matter of being able to hold fire" in a kindling fuel, is important. As is known, charcoal thru its smolderin character,holds fire for a considerable t1me;'and if in sufiicient bulk, it is a.-good kindling fuel, 'altho slow in action. I have found it to be of value, to admix impregnated charcoal particles with unimpregnated charcoal particles, and thus secure the dual character of quick ignition and a long continued production of heat for igniting superimposed fuels. This is desirable in connection with the ignition of hard cokes, or hard raw fuels.

What I claim as new is: v

1. The method herein described which consists in heating a fractionated hydrocarbon oil of a hardness and density of character that will not run at ordinary atmospheric temperatures when unheated dipping coked fuel particles in the heated fractionate, and cooling the dipped particles.

2. The method herein described which consists in heating a fluid hydrocarbon, mixing and dissolving a solid hydrocarbon with the fluid hydrocarbon, impregnating coke with the admixed hydrocarbons, and coating the impregnated coke with a solidifying coat.

3. The method herein described which consists in impregnating coke with a fluid hydrocarbon, and gasifying the hydrocarbon by subjecting the impregnated coke to gasifying temperatures in a gas producing still or retort.

4. The method herein described, which consists in impregnatin coke with a hydrocarbon and subjecting t e impregnated coke in a gas producer to heat of a determined temperature and of suflicient intensity to develop a fixed burnable gas from the. hydrocarbon, the heat being externally applied to the gas producer.

5. The method herein described, which consists-in placing coke particles in a bath of a hydrocarbon liquid of pronounced pens t-rative character, removing the coke from the bath before complete impregnation of amounts of the liquid from the exterior surfaces of the particles that would otherwise run from the particles.

6. The method herein described which consists in heating and drying coke and impregnating the heated and dried coke with a liquefied hydrocarbon while in aheated state.

7. A fuel particle of coke having its interior porosities impregnated with a fluid hydrocarbon, and having its exterior surfaces coated with a film of hard non-fluid hydrocarbon.

8. A fuel-mass composed of coke particles impregnated with a vhydrocarbon having greater inflammability than the coke, and particles of non-impregnated coke.

9. A fuel composed of coke particles impregnated with a highly penetrative diffusive hydrocarbon liquid in amounts less than can be fully absorbed by thecoke particles under the influence of capillary attraction in the coke particles.

10. A fuel-mass of coked particles impreg+ nated with a combustible hydrocarbon, and non-impregnated coked articles.

11. A fuel particle o coke having its in terior porosities impregnated with a non solid, easily inflammable hydrocarbon, and

an external thin coat of a solid hydrocarbon liquefied by a solvent or otherwise.

' 12. The method herein described, which consists in preparing a hydrocarbon oil of a specific definite gravity and penetrative liquidity suited for impregnating a coked fuel particle by heating the oil, and impregnating a coked fuel with the heated oil.

JOSEPH Mosnsf WARD xrronnn. 

